New Directions

The Fundamental Error of the Republican Party

The leaders of the Republican Party are fond of pointing out that they are the Party of Lincoln. Indeed, Abraham Lincoln did belong to the Republican Party, but the Grand Old Party is not what it used to be. Once upon a time it was the champion of civil rights for enslaved Africans who were born and died on Southern plantations. The Republican Party was a champion of the cause for human rights and equality for all. On the other hand it was the Democratic Party that had aligned itself with the South, an alignment that persisted until President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, thus ensuring that Southern blacks received the rights that Abraham Lincoln had envisioned. The point I am making here is that the Republican Party, at one time, was the party of the people, the party of the downtrodden, the party that wanted to help people who had been abused by the wealthy.

How times have changed. Today’s Republican Party is the champion, not of the suffering people at the lower end of the economic spectrum, it is the Party of Capitalism – the Party of the Wealthy. It is this new alignment with the wealthy class of Americans that spells doom for the Republican Party, but they are blind to its coming. Instead, they have crafted a new philosophy of self-determination, rugged individualism, every man for himself, complete freedom from governmental oversight, and absolutely minimal taxation – particularly for the wealthy.

It is an appealing philosophy for some – particularly the wealthy, i.e. the people who are at the top of the food pyramid of Capitalism. The business owners, the bankers, the insurance people – anyone who is in a position to make a lot of money from scamming the average American citizen loves Republican philosophy. It can be summed up like this: you should be free to make as much money as possible with the least interference from government and you shouldn’t have to give a dime to the government for anything other than maintaining a strong army, navy, and air force that will protect our capitalist enterprises. Republicans of today, unlike those of Lincoln’s time, are adamantly opposed to helping the poor in any way at all. For them, the law of America should be “Every man for himself”.

There is, however, a fatal flaw in the philosophy of Sarah Palin and John McCain. There is a mathematics that doesn’t work in the world view of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. There is a lack of logic in the bluster of Rush Limbaugh, the rantings of Glenn Beck, and the befuddled musings of Lou Dobbs, the former Republican turned Independent basher of Hispanics. The flaw in their thinking is their religious adherence to the purity of Capitalism. Why is this a flaw you might ask? It is a flaw because, despite our nearly religious American fervor for the word itself, Capitalism is not perfect. Capitalism is not some sort of gigantic marketplace computer that always comes up with the right answer. Capitalism, pure and simple, is more akin to the Law of the Yukon (I wonder if Sarah Palin could quote that?):

In pure Capitalism, as in the Yukon, there are a few really big winners. There are also a whole lot of losers. No doubt this works well for the wolves at the top of the food chain. But there is a problem for a political party that espouses extreme Capitalism, i.e. today’s Republican Party: it is inevitable that it will dwindle and diminish because eventually it will only be made up of the few who feed on the flesh of the overall population. Uncontrolled, pure Capitalism leads to financial ruin for the majority of people. It leads to the domination of the economy by a small number of mega-businesses, just as it leads to mega-banks that charge usurious interest rates because they can and they will not control themselves. Ultimately, the Republican Party is doomed to become the Party of the Few.

This then is the error of today’s Republican Party. They are blind to the fact that they do not represent the vast majority of Americans. They are blind to the fact that most Americans depend upon their government to help them make it through life, whether it is in education or health care or jobs or protection from criminals or so many other aspects of life. It is the government that the American people turn to when in need. Yet, it is exactly this sort of government that today’s Republican Party wants to dismantle.

These people are blind. They don’t see the inevitable lop-sided society that results from uncontrolled Capitalism, they only see the vast amounts of money that can be accumulated by the top dogs of Capitalism. But everybody can’t win the game of Capitalism, just like everybody can’t win the game of Monopoly. The result today is that the American people are leaving the Republican Party by the millions.

Yet the leaders of the Republican Party still don’t see their fundamental error: Pure Capitalism creates an economic pyramid, with the vast majority of people at the bottom where they will inevitably be unhappy. These unhappy people, inevitably, will no longer identify with the Republican Party. The Republican brand of Capitalism produces an unstable society and therefore it inevitably becomes an unstable political party. It can never be the dominant party for very long in a democracy. In the long run – maybe even in the fairly short run – it is doomed.

One Response

We are doomed! It seems gloom hangs in the air around our beloved country. We do not pledge allegiance to capitalism, but we do think individual freedom includes the right to own property.
The eminent domain power grabs end up accomplishing little for the public good, and derails private property. Why do my taxes pay for GM? Why do my taxes get given for ACORN? We have the Republican party Hurrican Katrina bunglers. We have the H1N! national emergency, without vaccine delivery schedules to meet the growing need of infected. This public health debacle dwarfs Katrina for number of dead, and more dying. The Democrats own this pandemic, and this is a good demonstration of public healthcare as run by the government.

Follow My Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 22 other followers

Visitor Count

144,294 hits

The Viral Epiphany

My new book, a thriller about a deadly worldwide pandemic caused by cloning an extinct virus is available as a digital download for Kindle readers at Amazon.com. Guaranteed to make you think. Click on the cover image to go to the Amazon download page.